B
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Finding The Right Product For Frying Food
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
WENDY SCHMIDT
Keeping a
garden
journal can
help you
avoid the
unexpected
The world of gardening is complex or
simple — whatever way you want it to
be. That is the remarkable thing about it:
You can tailor it to fi t your lifestyle.
There comes a point in life that things
get forgotten if they’re not written down.
That’s where a garden journal will help
you out. The journal can help make your
garden better if things are notated and
if you refer back to it to help remember
when you fertilized which plants.
It is much like taking care of your
car. You may get by just fi ne trying to
remember when to change the oil, but
exactly when did you buy those tires?
Did you ever get them rotated? Besides,
it’s nice to have a reminder to change the
oil. It cuts down the times of panic when
the idiot lights shine out from the dash.
When you keep a journal you can note
the location you plant a new plant and
keep track of its name, variety, when you
bought it and how it’s doing.
The peas are about fi nished (because
of the hot weather they’ll soon die back).
I’m thinking it would be worth the
gamble to plant a row of bush beans in
their place. Every year the weather is
a bit different, but I’m willing to take a
chance this year.
Garden chores
• Provide water in the garden for
birds, especially during dry weather.
• While spraying roses with fungi-
cides, mix a little extra and spray hardy
phlox to prevent powdery mildew.
• Water newly planted trees and
shrubs thoroughly every week.
• Fertilize container plants every 2
weeks with a water-soluble solution.
• Keep weeds from making seeds now.
Your vigilance will mean less weeding
next year.
• Keep dead-heading annuals for
repeat blooms.
• Plant zinnia seed now for late bloom
in annual borders.
• Stop pinching mums now, or autumn
fl owering will be delayed.
• Summer pruning of shade trees can
be done now.
• Divide bearded iris now.
• Dig potatoes when the tops die.
• Plant fall potatoes now.
If you have garden comments or ques-
tions, please write to greengardencol-
umn@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading!
Genevieve Ko/Los Angeles Times-TNS
Homemade doughnut holes.
C HOOSE T HE B EST
F AT F OR T HE J OB
over higher heats sputters and can burn you.
If you want butter’s distinctive flavor in dishes
Using the right kind of fat for different types that require frying, use usli ghee, a staple in In-
of frying will make whatever you cook more
dian cuisine, or clarified butter. Clarifying butter
delicious.
— removing the whey and water by applying
Generally, the higher a fat’s smoke point —
gentle heat — raises the point at which the
the temperature at which the fat goes from hot butter smokes from 300 degrees to 450 degrees.
and shimmery to smoky and acrid — the more Ghee is cooked longer than clarified butter, giv-
versatile and durable it is as a frying medium. A ing it a nuttier aroma.
wisp of smoke is fine before tossing ingredients
Even though ghee and clarified butter won’t
into a wok for a stir-fry or skillet for a sear, but
smoke until that high temperature, their flavor
a plume rising from the pan means the oil is
is more potent when used in medium-low and
burning, and the taste of burnt (not browned or medium-heat frying.
toasted) fat is rarely what we’re looking for in
• Medium to medium-high heat: rendered
the kitchen.
animal fats (lard; beef tallow; chicken fat
To figure out which fat I want to use for which (schmaltz); duck fat)
frying job, I think of them in these categories:
Lard was fundamental to cooking around the
• Low to medium heat: butter (fresh and
world until the dawn of processed and heavily
clarified) and usli ghee
marketed fats like Crisco. It’s a staple of Mexi-
Butter’s fat content ranges from 80% to 85%; can cooking, which makes it easy to find in L.A.
the rest is 13% to 18% water and 1% to 2%
Thanks to the popularity of the keto diet, other
milkfat solids and whey proteins. When heated, rendered animal fats are now readily available
butter goes from melted to brown to burnt. If it at supermarkets and online too. They taste the
hits that last stage, it will ruin whatever you’re richest of all fats and with smoke points that
cooking — plus, the fat colliding with the water range from 375 to 400 degrees, they can be used
By Genevieve Ko
Los Angeles Times
for searing, sizzling and other higher-heat cook-
ing, including deep-frying. The rendering process
may leave some liquid in the fat, so watch out
for popping when you heat it.
• Medium-high to high heat: refined vegetable-
based oils (vegetable, canola, corn, peanut, sun-
flower, safflower, rice bran, virgin/light/pure olive,
refined avocado and grapeseed)
Vegetable oils that are processed and refined
after pressing end up with high smoke points, so
they can be used in a multitude of ways and last
longer in the pantry. What they lack in taste, they
make up for in versatility.
With smoke points that range from 390 to 510
degrees, these oils can be used for stir-frying, high-
heat sauteing and shallow- and deep-frying. Shal-
low and deep-frying, when food is partly or fully
immersed in bubbling hot oil, require knowing
the exact temperature of the oil. If you maintain
the correct temperature, you’ll be rewarded with
crunchy outsides and properly cooked insides.
The food won’t absorb excess oil or feel greasy and
actually end up tasting light and crisp.
See Frying/Page 2B
Erickson and Durland Building has a rich history
By Ginny Mammen
The building at 1517-25 Jeffer-
son Ave. has no historic name but
has had many common names and
owners over the years. The loca-
tion, close to the railroad tracks,
made this warehouse building a
choice spot for a number of busi-
nesses. Some of these were Smith-
Noble Produce Co., Smith-Nibarger
Produce Co., C. W. Bunting & Son,
Erickson & Durland and later as
Erickson & Lottes. Only the Erick-
son and Durland name has survived
through the years in the ghost sign
on the building’s wall facing the
railroad tracks.
The original brick building at
1525 Jefferson was constructed
around 1906 as a warehouse
originally used for the storage of
fl our and produce on one end, and
cement, sash, doors, and hardware
on the other. Over the years addi-
tions were constructed making a
unit of 1517-25. In the early 1920s
was created as a part of the Blue
Mountain Fruit Exchange in this
Jefferson Avenue building.
These merchants, as their prede-
cessors, carried a variety of goods cov-
ering just about anything one would
need. This included poultry supplies,
garden seed, apples, cherries, and
potatoes, coal, fertilizers, cement, lime
and sprays.
In January 1931 Durland sold out
to Fredrick Lottes. The new busi-
ness, Erickson and Lottes, continued
offering many of the same products
and adding new ones when the need
arose. Erickson left the business in
1945 and in 1946 Lottes offi cially
changed the name to Lottes Ware-
Photo from the Fred Hill Collection house.
The building at 1517-25 Jefferson in La Grande has been the site of
August Erland Erickson, born
several businesses over the years, including the Erickson and Dur-
in Sweden in 1884, came to the
land Dealers, which sold grain, poultry supplies and other items.
United States in the late 1890s
with his family to live in Wyoming.
August Erickson was a shareholder interest, Erickson took Benjamin
Sometime after 1905 August moved
with Nibarger in C. W. Bunting
Durland into the partnership and in from Wyoming to Union County
and Son. When Nibarger sold his
1924 Erickson and Durland Dealers and worked as a farm hand and
later becoming the farm manager.
In 1908 he married Lorna Loger, a
young woman from Cove. August
was a hard worker and before long
he owned his own farm and a 7-acre
cherry orchard in May Park as well
as his growing business on Jefferson.
August and Lorna had two children
— a son and a daughter. August died
in February 1976 in La Grande at the
age of 92.
His partner, Benjamin Merrill Dur-
land, was born in Kansas in 1878.
Ben married Nellie Mooney in 1905
and shortly after, as many young
couples did during that time, moved
West to start their married lives. One
of his jobs during the early part of
the 1900s was that of manager of the
Grande Ronde Fruit Company ranch
at the foot of Mount Emily. The Feb.
21, 1916, Observer reported that Mr.
Durland had been away from home
and Mrs. Durand met him at the
train.
See History/Page 2B